Electronic means may be used to profile and infer personal information about individuals. For example, inferences about one or more individuals can be made through analysis of individual data records. For example, by analyzing a short message service (SMS) correspondence about a salary, the salary of the individual can be profiled. By analyzing social media activity, individual connections, age, marital status, etc. can be profiled. Further, inferences about a person can be made based on a relative frequency of usage of terms or entities by the individual in, for example, search engines. For example, by analyzing the frequency of search terms, appropriate recommendations can be made corresponding to what is believed to be an individual's needs, likes or dislikes. By way of example, if an individual is searching more about 4 and 5 star hotels than lower rated properties, a recommendation engine may infer personal details, such as the individual's wealth and salary.
Although this information can be used to profile users for positive results, such as recommendations, it might be against individual interest to profile certain personal information about a user, especially if the inferred personal information can be used for negative purposes, such as, for example, identity theft.